Let’s just say, for the sake of a blog, that KDOT finds a pot of gold, we progress through what is apparently to be a multi-year process, and we advance to one of the four expanded passenger rail service scenarios in Kansas. I enjoy travel by rail and want to plan a marathon trip to some of my favorite US cities. Let’s take a trip…

Searching the Amtrak website, I find a great feature for the marathon frugal traveler. For only $389 I can buy a USA Rail Pass that allows me to travel eight segments in 15 days. A segment is not a city-to-city connection but a trip when you get on a train then get off. Now we’re off to Amtrak.com for some cyber-planning.

Of course, the first segment is easy. I board in Wichita on the southbound Heartland Flyer and will arrive in Fort Worth just after noon. The southbound Texas Eagle leaves in only 91 minutes so there certainly isn’t time to catch a Rangers game (that’s okay, I’m old school and prefer the Senior League anyway).

At 9:55 p.m. we pull in to San Antonio. It’s been a long day since I hopped aboard back in Kansas – long before the sun came up – but wasn’t the boarding process nice: no removing shoes and belts, no metal detectors, no rules on how much shampoo I can bring (not a big issue for me anyway). I even brought my own snacks! And while the first day of a road trip is always an exciting one, I’m a little tired.

Hold on though, this is a marathon trip and the Sunset Limited leaves for New Orleans at five minutes before midnight. We’ll sleep on the train. It’s a long way across Texas (it’s like a whole other country) and we arrive mid-afternoon at the home of the world champion Saints. It’s a good thing we slept on-board since the French Quarter is calling. Day 2 on Bourbon Street is a great prospect – so is a night in a real bed. An overnight in New Orleans is a necessity and a late wake-up call is in order since another day in the Big Easy is just what the doctor ordered. Day 4 though, will be an up-and-at-‘em morning since the train pulls out at 7:05.

The Crescent is the fourth segment and riding the entire 1,377 mile length will take a day and a half. Daylight scenery will be in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia then overnight hours through the Carolinas and Virginia. Passing through D.C. mid-morning then Philly, I’ll arrive at Penn Station at two in the afternoon. Calling to me just above the station is the Garment District and Madison Square Garden. No time for a ball game though – there are too many sites to see in NYC. Times Square, Rockefeller Center, the Dakota, Central Park, the Guggenheim, Chinatown, Trinity Church, the Staten Island Ferry, the Brooklyn Bridge… there’s just too much. Spending a couple of nights in the City is a necessary extravagance for the frugal traveler.

Bright and early on Day 7 we return to Penn Station to catch any one of a number of routes that will get us back to D.C.: the Northeast Regional, Carolinian, Crescent, Vermonter, Silver Service/Palmetto or Cardinal/Hoosier State (the USA Rail Pass does not work on the Acela Express). By lunchtime we are walking to Zack’s Taverna southeast of the Capitol. A half-day on the Mall and all of the next day is a minimum in the nation’s capitol. Too much Smithsonian – not enough time! And seeing my SF Giants play the Nats is too easy – the Green Line takes us right to Nationals Park!

Two nights in D.C. and it’s Day 9. Luckily, departure time for the Capitol Limited to the Second City is at 4:05 p.m. A final tour of Washington is in order. The Lincoln Memorial, that big, funky statue of Einstein at the National Academy of Sciences and a solemn stop at the Wall. Next is a visit to Georgetown for lunch, a quick ride on the Blue Line and a mandatory stop at the U.S. Botanic Garden (not to be missed). Then a short walk to Union Station.

Segment 6 follows the historic B&O Line through the Potomac Valley, past Harpers Ferry, into the Alleghenies and across Ohio and Indiana. Arrival in Chicago (18 hours later) is at 8:45 a.m. – a good time to start the day in Chi-town. A visit to the Art Institute is the perfect level of culture before jumping on the rickety Red Line for a 1:20 Cubbie start time. Wrigley is an American monument and an afternoon ball game is a treat.

Why not spend a couple of nights in Chicago? There is still some time on the 15-day countdown. It’s a great city to visit and with the El, there is no need for a car. Navy Pier, another Chinatown, Shedd Aquarium, a wade in Lake Michigan – again, plenty of entertainment.

On the 12th day, the Southwest Chief leaves Chicago’s Union Station at 3:15 in the afternoon. It pulls into Kansas City at about 11 after traversing Illinois with four stops then one in Iowa and one in north-central Missouri. With friends and family in KC, it will be easy to spend a couple of nights eating barbeque, shopping, visiting that big shuttlecock thing – heck, I’ll probably even see the Royals beat up on somebody (note the traveler’s optimism).

Day 14 has me cashing in the last segment, the four-hour ride to Wichita. Now this makes an assumption that because of the huge pot of money located in paragraph one, a stand-alone service will take me from KC’s Union Station to a yet-to-be-determined Wichita depot. It’s a glorious home stretch across the eastern half of Kansas – KCK, Lawrence, Topeka, Emporia, Strong City, Newton then home again, home again.

Fourteen days, thirteen nights (three nights of sleeping on trains, eight nights in hotels and two nights as a guest) -- wow, what a trip! The USA Rail Pass saved me about two hundred bucks (if I would have bought the same route tickets individually). But all in all, I’m glad to be home. Now, where’d I park my car?

As promised in an earlier post (Are You People Crazy???) a large highway project is set to begin Monday, May 18 on U.S. 54/400 (Kellogg Avenue) at the I-135 Interchange.

Drivers will find traffic reduced to two lanes in each direction on Kellogg in the heaviest traveled corridor in Wichita. Plus, access from Kellogg to I-135 will be closed (beginning Wednesday, May 20) until the first phase of the project is completed in November.

Over 100,000 vehicles per day use Kellogg on the west side of the interchange and drivers should expect increased congestion in and around the construction zones. Message boards will be used to advise drivers of lane restrictions and ramp closures.

The bright side of this news is the amount of highway infrastructure that will be improved. During the first phase of the two-year project, the eastbound Kellogg bridge over Hydraulic St. will be completely replaced and repairs will be made to seven other bridges. These repairs vary on each bridge and include deck patching, driving surface improvements, new bridge approaches, work on bridge abutments (support structures at each end), new guard rail, expansion joint repair or replacement, polymer overlay on bridge shoulders, improved drainage systems on all bridges plus one bridge widening.

Additionally, the acceleration/deceleration lane from eastbound Kellogg to southbound I-135 will be extended from Lincoln St. to Harry St. and the two ramps from Kellogg to I-135 will be expanded to two lanes each.

Because access from Kellogg to I-135 will be closed, U.S. 54/400 traffic access to I-135 will be signed using I-235 as the detour.

The speed limit in the construction zone will be posted at 50 mph and increased enforcement will be provided by the Kansas Highway Patrol. Speed enforcement on Kellogg adjacent to the construction zones will continue to be provided by the Wichita Police Department.

The prime contractor for the nearly $20 million project is Wildcat Construction Co. Inc. of Wichita. A large number of subcontractor companies have also been hired to complete specialty construction operations. At times, double shifts will be used but crews will generally work Mondays through Saturdays from dawn to dusk.

Phase 2 of the project will begin in March 2010 and includes repairs on nine bridges, some in the interchange, one on Kellogg and some south of the interchange over I-135. Access from I-135 to U.S. 54/400 will be closed during Phase 2.

Hold on tight -- we're not crazy but we will bring madness to drivers at the busiest interchange in Wichita.

Spring snowstorms are not all that unusual in Kansas. But they certainly aren’t very welcomed either. A recent sleet and snow storm hit Wichita (and much of the state) in late March but I’d have to say, our metro area was very lucky.

On Thursday (the eve o’ the storm), maintenance crews were out doing their normal thing: one was patching concrete on an interstate ramp, another cleaned storm water drains on an elevated highway, one did dirt work on a roadside ditch and another was sanding drywall in a new meeting and training room. The Wichita TV media wanted footage of our crews prepping for the storm but alas, it was only in the last hour of the day that crews converted their dump trucks to snow plows.

That night we saw rain but it eventually turned to sleet. After about two or three inches of sleet and gropple, crews had the roads cleared of ice and slush but a layer of slickness remained. Late morning of day two brought heavy snow with a hard north wind. But a funny thing happened that afternoon – the sun came out and the storm was over! It still took a number of hours to clean up the highways but really, it was a pretty workable storm for our crews.

Not so much though for the surrounding counties. Freezing rain contributed to a number of crashes west, north, east and south of the Wichita metro. Virtually all highways to the west of Wichita were closed for at least a day. Pratt and Kingman counties accumulated over two feet of snow and some pretty huge snowdrifts.

KDOT’s 511 system performed valiantly but somewhere along the line sagged due to its popularity. Online viewing was hampered by extra-slow loading of highway condition maps and for some strange reason, our text list of Closed Highways gives a pretty good description of sections closed – it just forgets to list the highway number. Odd. The phone version of 511 was great even though some callers heard busy signals (switches at the phone company couldn’t handle the load). All this is being discussed and hopefully, fixed.

Follow-up to the storm will take a number of weeks. In the metro, crews have replaced signs and markers that were wiped out. Guardrail and light poles sometimes take a little longer to replace. We’re ready to get back to “normal” spring chores now – please.

Well, transportation projects just don’t happen like that – have a study, identify a solution, turn over dirt the next day. But recently, a final design for the I-135/47th St. Interchange, improvements to the 47th & Broadway intersection and access solutions along 47th St. was completed.

At a public meeting on February 19, these comments were heard:

·         “Looks great – this will be a tremendous improvement.”

·         “We appreciate the diligence on keeping this project moving along.”

·         “OK, let’s do it – when can you start?”

Financing this project, as with all new projects in Kansas lately, has been the stickler. After a fantastic ten-year Comprehensive Transportation Program, the current economic situation has not been conducive to adding new projects to the State’s financial pickle.

But along comes the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act. On February 20, Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson and KDOT Sec. Deb Miller announced that the 47th St. project is one of four ready-to-go major projects for the State of Kansas. Specifically, they identified $23 million for the reconstruction and upgrade of the interchange to remove the bottleneck and to provide a link to an underutilized area (read: economic development).

“OK, let’s do it – when can you start?”

The plan now is for the City of Wichita to acquire the necessary right-of-way and to have utility companies move their hardware if it is in the construction zone. In the mean time, KDOT’s road design team will continue their work with a consultant to iron out the last details of the construction process. If everything goes along without a hitch, the project may be let in June (bids from contractors will be opened). A few weeks after that, a contract could be signed and the dirt could be turned.

OK, let’s do it – now we can start!

I had a few (understatement) phone calls in the last few days and many of them started with similar questions. Why in the world would you (KDOT) want to close the ramps that link U.S 54/400 (the Kellogg Freeway through Wichita) with I-135? Are you plotting ways to make life more miserable for drivers? Are you people crazy?

Well, while I can’t write for all of us at KDOT, I’m pretty sure we’re not crazy and we’re not plotting against drivers. We are, however, responsible for the care and feeding of 10,000 miles of the state highway system and we intend to maintain the current highway infrastructure as well as make improvements for the future.

On February 18, at the monthly letting shindig, KDOT will open bids from contractors interested in making improvements to the I-135 & Kellogg Interchange. And as soon as we can get a signed contract, the “winner” of the contract will start the nine-month process of repairing 11 bridge decks, completely replacing one bridge, expanding four ramps, adding a ¼-mile lane extension on southbound I-135 plus complete a number of other repairs.

To facilitate the multi-location repairs within the interchange – one that handles up to 100,000 vehicles/day – some closures are necessary. The project is divided into two phases. In a nutshell, here’s what’s planned:

March – July Phase 1

• All Kellogg to I-135 access CLOSED
• I-235 will be official, marked detour for US-54 to I-135 traffic
• EB & WB Kellogg will be reduced to two lanes for each direction
• Through traffic on I-135 will not be affected
• I-135 access to Kellogg will be open
• Lane expansion – SB I-135 between Lincoln & Harry

July – November Phase 2

• All I-135 to Kellogg access CLOSED
• I-235 will be official, marked detour for I-135 to US-54 traffic
• EB & WB Kellogg reduction to two lanes for each direction will continue
• Through traffic on I-135 will not be affected
• Kellogg access to I-135 will be open

If you call me about this project, please feel free to begin the conversation with “Are you people crazy???” That way I’ll know immediately what project you want to discuss.

After years of ITS in major metro areas, Wichita will soon see the benefits of more efficient travel by using the ever-expanding opportunities of new technology. Usually transportation planners speak of adding capacity via more lanes or a completely new highway. Instead of that approach, we are adding features that will allow drivers to make more intelligent travel decisions on our current system of state highways.

So, what the heck is ITS anyway? In the words of the ITS pros who had to come up with an explanation for the rest of us:

Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is the use of electronics, computers, sensors, communications and management strategies to improve roadway safety and transportation system efficiency.

In 1998, that’s right 1998, a multi-jurisdictional governmental committee (a bunch of Kreskins from KDOT, City of Wichita, Sedgwick County and other places) released a seldom-read report that outlined ITS for ICT.

In early 2009, their work blooms and a test project will begin. Six closed-circuit cameras will be installed on 45’ wooden poles at three interchanges: I-135/I-235/K-96/K-254 (the North Junction), I-135/U.S. 54 (E. Kellogg) and I-235/U.S. 54 (W. Kellogg). Six portable variable message boards will be used near these interchanges to advise drivers of traffic problems.

Possibly the best part of the test project is the creation of the Traffic Management Center (TMC). It will house all of the technology that will process the data from the field. It will be managed by KDOT with staffing assistance from Sedgwick County Emergency Communications 911 operators (a very efficient partnership).

What will we see starting in 2010 when this test project plays out and we get to Phase 1 of the real deal?

·        28 closed-circuit cameras on 60’ metal poles

·        14 permanent dynamic message signs

·        36 vehicle detectors providing traffic density & speed info

·        M-F 6am-7pm Traffic Management Center

·        A website sharing lots of this traffic info

·        Coverage of about 20 miles of Wichita’s freeway system